By Fu Lei
“Talking about it is one thing; doing it is another,” said Lam Thuy Vo, Hong Kong-based multimedia editor with the Wall Street Journal Asia, as she assembled the edible props for her one-hour workshop on multi-media production on Tuesday.
Dominic Swire (right) mulls the best angle for shooting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich under the eagle eye of Lam Thuy Vo (centre). Photo by Fu Lei.
Vo’s workshop was one of a number of well-attended hands-on sessions arranged for participants attending the International Media Conference 2010 co-sponsored by the East-West Centre and The University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC).
She placed a loaf of sliced bread, a jar of peanut butter and another of jam on a table and asked a volunteer from the audience to build a peanut butter and jelly (jam) sandwich.
This was to form the basis of a lesson in video shooting, part of a broader lecture into the art of choosing the best medium (or media) to tell the story, the crux of successful multi-media reporting.
As one volunteer assembled the sandwich, another recorded it — guided by Vo’s explanation of the recording process from framing, to recording audio to shooting — including the over-the-shoulder shot so popular with cable TV food programmers.
“Be careful of zooming because the picture will get shaky,” Vo told the volunteer cameraman. “When you zoom, zoom with your feet.”
Vo also stressed the importance of clear sound-bites and full-sentence audio recording when shooting video.
Her one-hour workshop demonstrated ways of combining video, information graphics, and Flash to produce vivid reporting.
She also addressed reporting with GPS-equipped cell phones. “First you conceptualise the point and then gather the material,” she said.
Dominic Swire, from Manchester in Britain, volunteered as cameraman. “I really enjoyed it. It was an interesting presentation. I learnt by doing what she was teaching. With hands-on demonstrations, you can either do it yourself or watch somebody do it,” he said.
Swire is a news editor and reporter for Beijing-based China Radio International.
“Mainly I do news reports for radio programmes, but I would like to do more video,” he said after the workshop.
